


Seeing You

by KaeStela



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 06:37:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19661848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaeStela/pseuds/KaeStela
Summary: Maybe "See you later" can happen after all.An afterward for the story, because I couldn't leave well enough or bittersweet alone. I'm sure this has been done many times before, but the idea hit after I finished replaying it tonight so here we are.





	Seeing You

_I… See you later…_

The words still echo in my ears. Hours, days later. I don’t quite know how long it’s been. There’s a timelessness to it all, like that last lonely hour as the sun sets. I shared it with Rusl such a long time ago. I share it with the goats sometimes now. I shared it with you, so many times. Tonight, I see it alone.

The bulblin king kept his word. Our lands are quiet now. He met with Princess—no, _Queen_ Zelda last night. He will be present at her coronation, one sovereign to another. There will be peace. Even if she is not formally crowned, all of us call her Queen now. Her people are so proud. She deserves it. Somehow they know, how she fought beside me.

They do not know about the one who fought with me much longer, and I cannot tell them.

I’m not sure how long I searched through the sand. The stars were overhead by the time I sank back, exhausted, and let Zelda lead me home. She helped, I think. I saw white and brown out of the corner of my eyes, but I couldn’t see past the sand and that empty hollow stand.

_See you later…_

We found only one shard. It’s as long as my hand, not even half the size Zant smashed them into. You always were a thorough one. With what it did to Darbus, Yeta, the monster in the sky… I guess, or should have guessed, what you would do. “Something we’ll ultimately have to destroy,” right? But not we, really. You knew I would have stopped you. Ilia still says I think too much with my heart and not my head. And not enough with my feet that stayed too still.

But I thought with all of me tonight. Shad, Nayru bless him, he knew the markings that I traced, helped me repeat them. Rusl found the wood to form the frame. Ancient wood, as old as the glass, I think. The little imp in the woods didn’t mind too much. He even gave me some, with a heavy knot to keep it still. I think he knew what I’m up to. Colin can see him too. The others can’t. I didn’t ask why.

Auru took care of the joins for me. My hands aren’t steady anymore. Or yet, we hope. The old wounds still catch a bit, but that will heal. I always did, from everything, the arrows, the stones.

Maybe I’ll heal from this too.

It took so much to convince Ashei to let me handle it alone as I set the last bits right. She’s kept an eye on me this whole time. Serves me right, I guess. I tried Jovanni’s way one night. It didn’t work. I never had the stomach for all that. Ashei hauled me up and dumped me in the fountain and sat there until my hands shook out as much as I could say. You’d like her. You did like her. That’s right. But she’d like you. I think that’s what I’m trying to say. I never was that good at words. But maybe this time I can be good enough. Proud and wild, that’s what Telma called me. Chosen one. Blue-eyed beast. I feel damp roll down my cheek and remember that I’m just me.

Can the people in your world hear the lingering regrets of those left behind? Rusl said we can hear it on our side, in the twilight. I never got to ask if it’s the same for you. But it’s beautiful. That haunting, tranquil beauty. It’s time. I sigh, dip it in the spirit spring, turn the shard to catch the light.

It’s not perfect yet. I know that from the start. I knew, first try, it couldn’t be. Not for a shard so small. Wavering, blurred. Or maybe that’s my eyes. Funny how I kept them dry that whole long time, even when the bulblins struck, for the Zora queen, every time I almost lost you, the one time I did.

And there is light, where my tear touched the glass. Tears of twilight broke it. But tears from light, this tired wolf’s eyes, maybe that can mend.

I see gold in the glass, the gentle light, the rolling clouds, and my heart _aches_ with all the loneliness it has ever felt. And not just mine, because I see someone standing there all alone, staring out over the endless sky.

It’s not perfect yet. The glass can’t carry sound. I didn’t think it would, didn’t think I’d get this far. But maybe you feel it still, this intrusion. Because you turn. 

I raise my hands as your eyes go wide, your lovely eyes. _What?_ I ask. _Say something!_ You gape, my fingers curl with my silent laughter. _Am I so beautiful that you’ve no words left?_

It’s not perfect yet. I can’t hear you laugh. But I see that smile, that _smile_ , and it’s enough.

I see you. 


End file.
